China is likely to suffer more outbreaks of bird flu among poultry and possibly among people in coming winter months, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said yesterday after China confirmed its first cases of human infection. China announced on Wednesday a woman in eastern Anhui province had died from the H5N1 avian flu strain which was suspected in the death of a 12-year-old girl last month in southern Hunan.

The strain was confirmed in her 9-year-old brother who recovered. The WHO was ?seeking further information? about a possible human infection in Liaoning province in China?s far north, Henk Bekedam, WHO?s chief official in Beijing, said. ?We expect there will be more poultry outbreaks to come,? he told reporters, noting that the H5N1 virus that causes bird flu can survive longer in cold weather.

?As long as there are poultry outbreaks, people will be exposed to the virus and we can expect that people might get infected.? China gave blanket coverage to its first human cases of bird flu yesterday, laying bare the threat to the world?s most populous nation from a virus that is spreading in poultry despite efforts to control it.

Chinese newspapers carried pictures of distraught relatives of the victims, contrasting with the initial coverage of the SARS crisis two years ago when China tried to cover up the epidemic in its early stages. Bekedam said he found China?s response to the spreading poultry outbreaks ?very encouraging?. He also said that the Anhui woman was identified by doctors as a possible victim of bird flu although no poultry outbreak was reported in her village. But he also said that, with 14 billion domestic poultry, 70 percent kept in backyards, the country faced particular difficulties in containing the disease.

?Even when the government is very willing to fight the avian influenza, at times the information they they?re getting about the poultry, especially in the backyard, might be a bit late.? China has tried to contain about a dozen outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry since last month, culling millions of birds and ordering mass vaccinations of fowl. The WHO says H5N1 is endemic in poultry flocks in several countries in Asia and that it is crucial to control the virus in birds to prevent more people becoming infected. The more humans infected, the greater the chances of the virus mutating into a form that passes easily among people. If this occurs millions might die because they have no immunity. The virus has been confirmed to have infected 130 people in Asia, killing 67.

Scientists have expressed fears that bird flu could make the jump from a bird disease to a human disease in large countries such as China or Indonesia and start spreading before anyone knew ? or before officials reported such a spread to the outside world. But Dr David Nabarro, the UN coordinator for avian influenza, says he believed all the attention being paid to the issue had changed things. ?In the current circumstances, no country will want to have been found to have hidden anything,? Nabarro told reporters in a briefing in New York.

?We have the beginnings of an unprecedented amount of honesty from some countries.? Indonesia announced two more deaths after confirmation by a laboratory in Hong Kong, bringing the total to seven, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. Four others have survived. The latest cases are a 20-year-old woman who died last weekend and a 16-year-old girl who died last week. Hariadi Wibisono, a senior ministry official, said both had contact with dead chickens.

Amin Soebandrio, assistant deputy for health and medical services at Indonesia?s Ministry of Research and Technology, told the New York meeting his country was struggling to cope, saying the confirmed cases could be just the ?tip of the iceberg?. Soebandrio said the government knew that culling infected poultry was key to controlling the virus, but could not do it properly. ?The government has not enough resources to pay compensation to the farmer,? he said. ?That?s the problem.?

Experts and health officials are becoming increasingly concerned about H5N1, which made the first known jump to humans in Hong Kong in 1997, infecting 18 people and killing six. The WHO says the virus, like many influenza viruses, is steadily mutating and it also appears to have expanded its host range, infecting and killing mammal species previously considered resistant to infection with avian influenza viruses. Hong Kong said it was increasing surveillance at border crossings with mainland China. Temperature screening machines at the Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau border checkpoints, among the busiest in the world, would be re-activated within 48 hours.

Chris BUCKLEY